The Other Man
by Joker Cat
Summary: When Richard ended his five year relationship with Lois Lane, she assumed it was because of Superman and jealousy. But what if it was something else? Read and review.
1. Over

**I'm assuming most people skip author's notes, so I'm going to try and make this quick.**

**First of all, I have not actually written a story in a long, long time. If you see any errors, grammar mistakes, etc it's probably because I haven't noticed. I went over this chapter twice and removed every error I could spot.**

Second, I do accept criticism, but I will NOT tolerate flames. If you have a problem with my story, then don't read it.

Third, this story is HUMOUR. It's not meant to be serious at all.

Disclaimer: I do not own Superman Returns or any of the characters.

* * *

Richard wouldn't dare admit it to his fiancé, Lois Lane, that he constantly imagined the moment she would leave him to go back to her returned ex-love, Superman.

It all started a month ago when Superman returned to Metropolis. He would sit in his office and space out, only thinking about that moment.

Richard began to feel like his days with Lois and Jason were numbered. Each day that went by was another step closer to the day Lois would announce her leaving him.

Richard knew that there was nothing he could do. Lois would do just fine supporting herself and Jason without him.

Some days he felt like going up to Lois and shouting, "Woman, you're using me!" but he didn't have the guts to. He loved Lois too much.

Sometimes he wondered if he should've known better than to fall for _Lois Lane_, the Daily Planet reporter who had been in love with Superman five years ago and still possibly was.

It was another day at work for Richard and Lois at The Daily Planet. Lois sat at her desk, typing out yet another article about Superman and Richard sat in his office looking in Lois' direction. Richard got more and more frustrated by the second.

"No… I can't be second best again!" Richard thought to himself. But competing with Superman wouldn't be easy. "I… maybe Lois isn't the woman for me… Wait a sec… who am I kidding? Duh! Of course she is! Superman will soon see that!"

Richard eventually stopped staring at Lois and tried working. He was supposed to write an article about his recent trip to Europe, but he didn't do anything but sit in his hotel room and wonder if Lois was with Superman. Richard phoned her nearly every hour and asked her what she was doing. Richard knew she wouldn't admit it, but she must've been him. He felt it. Or maybe it was just jealousy.

"They were planning their new life with MY son!" Richard said angrily, luckily nobody heard him.

Richard grabbed a black pen off of his desk began chewing on the back of it nervously. He had to watch over Lois very closely, but how could he do that without her noticing? If he tried flying his plane around the city and following her, she'd notice, no doubt.

"Richard!" A loud, familiar voice said. Richard jumped and turned his head to see Perry White, his uncle, standing in the doorway of his office. "What is the meaning of this!?"

"What? What's the meaning of what?" Richard asked, confused and afraid that Perry had heard what he was saying to himself. Perry shook his head in disbelief.

"This!" Perry pointed at the black stain in the new white carpet Richard had begged Perry for for months. Richard looked down at the floor and noticed the black stain and then he looked at his new brown shirt which also had a stain. "What's that?"

"Uh… I think my pen exploded." Richard said.

"How in the heck could that happen?" Perry asked. Richard suddenly tasted something disgusting in his mouth and started spitting all over the floor. It was ink. Richard wiped his tongue on his sleeve in attempt to remove the sickening flavor. "Chewing on pens again, I see."

"P-Perry I-" Richard began.

"No. No more of this." Perry said. "You will clean up this mess and from now on you can use pencils."

"But- HEY! I'm not a little kid." Richard said rudely. Perry walked over to Richard, snatched the pens off of his desk, and shoved them in his own pants pocket.

"And don't be bringing any to work tomorrow or any other day until I see that you can handle them and be responsible!" Perry said. "Now clean this mess up before your carpet is completely ruined!" Perry turned away and slammed the office door behind him.

* * *

"Richard, what happened in your office earlier?" Lois asked that night at the dinner table. Richard wasn't in one of his happiest moods. He, for one, was ticked off that his new expensive white carpet had a large black stain in it and he wouldn't be able to get a new one for a while.

Richard also didn't have such a great day at work after the pen incident. He found himself constantly in embarrassing situations due to talking out loud to himself about Lois and Superman.

"Nothing." Richard grumbled. Lois put her fork down loudly on her plate and waited impatiently for a real answer. "Okay, okay… another one of my pens exploded everywhere but it wasn't my fault."

"We've talked about this chewing habit, Richard." Lois sighed. Richard had been constantly chewing on things since Superman had come back. He'd chewed on the garden hose, Jason's headphone wires, and even one of Lois' shoes by accident. Richard couldn't help it. "Perhaps you should consider professional help." Richard looked up and shook his head quickly.

"That, woman, is the LAST thing I need!" Richard said. "I can control the habit. Seriously. It's just that when I worry or I'm nervous it happens. I'll try--"

"What are you worried about?" Lois interrupted. The room went awkwardly silent and that's when Lois assumed it must've been something to do with Superman. This frustrated her, especially since it seemed to be a reoccurring topic during meals. "Richard, would you just drop it?"

"Lois, that's the thing, I just can't!" Richard responded. "It's just too much to compete with. I think we should just… call it quits."

"_Compete_?" Lois repeated. "Richard, you're just going to end this relationship because you think I still love Superman!? I've told you one too many times that I DON'T!"

"Okay." Richard said, dropping his fork and putting his hands in the air. "I just…I don't want to be second best anymore."

"You're not second best," Lois said as she got out of her chair. "and you never were!" Lois put her plate on the counter and stomped up the stairs leaving Richard and Jason at the table. Jason looked up at Richard with a look of misunderstanding on his face.

"Want some more broccoli, son?" Richard said quickly, hoping Jason would forget what he witnessed.

* * *

Richard was a lucky guy. He rarely got thrown out of his own bedroom by Lois, but tonight was different from most. Lois tossed his pillow outside the door, along with his pajamas and toothbrush as if to stay, "You're on the couch tonight, buddy!"

"Lois!" Richard cried, banging on the door. "Come on! The couch makes my back hurt real bad in the morning." Lois opened the bedroom door a crack.

"You should've thought about that before you started thinking things!" Lois responded and slammed the bedroom door in his face. Richard sighed. He knew arguing would do nothing but make it worse, so he went to the closet to get a blanket and headed down to the couch. He knew it'd take time for him to fall asleep, but he had no choice, it was the couch or the floor.

* * *

The next morning when Richard awoke, Lois was already gone. He figured she went to drop off Jason at school and then head off to work.

Richard struggled to get up off of the couch. His back ached worse than ever before. Once Richard was sitting up, he rubbed what he could of his back gently with his hand. It hurt so much he thought someone had come and beat him on the back while he was asleep.

"Darn couch…" Richard shouted angrily.

"Lois, can we just please- I don't think you understood what I meant last night-" Richard said to Lois. She was sitting down at a desk, on the computer, trying to concentrate on something.

"Richard, I understood perfectly." Lois said, focusing on the computer screen. "You think I love Superman and so you've decided that you're going to just flush a five year relationship down the TOILET!"

"But-" Lois looked up at him, got up and walked away. Richard watched her as she stomped off, and decided he'd better get back to his office before he got into more trouble with Perry.

Richard sat at his desk quietly for a few minutes before thinking up an idea that might get Lois to listen to him. He'd write a note. Richard grabbed a white piece of lined paper, a sharpened pencil and began writing her a letter…

_Dear Lois_

_I know you think you know what I meant last night, but you don't. Since he returned, I can hardly control my feelings and I need you to understand. Sometimes relationships just don't work out. I need to follow my heart, I can't just keep being with you and pretending like it would be the same because it's not. He's back and things are different now. _

_Lois, please understand. I don't want to hurt you but my heart tells me it's time to just… let go. I will always love you but being the second best man in your life won't work. _

_Love from,_

_Richard White._

_P.S. Please meet me on the roof!_

Richard rolled up the letter, wrote "FOR YOU" on the outside with a black permanent marker, put an elastic around it, and dropped it off on the desk that Lois was sitting at earlier. Richard smiled satisfyingly and skipped off to the elevator. He decided he'd better be the first on the roof.

* * *

Richard waited on the rooftop of The Daily Planet. He felt sad inside, however, he also felt that this was the right thing for him, Lois and Jason. Little did Richard know, his wait would be much longer than it had to be, because Lois hadn't received the letter from him. Someone else did…

Jimmy Olsen was surprised to see a note on his desk after lunch. He grabbed it, reading the words "FOR YOU", and smiling. He pulled the elastic off excitedly, unrolled the letter, and read it. Jimmy wound up reading it three or four times before realizing it wasn't for him-- it was for Lois.

Jimmy looked around fretfully, and quickly rolled the letter up and put the elastic back around it. He made sure it looked exactly as it did when he found it. It did, except for the wrinkles here and there on it. He scanned the room swiftly and spotted Lois at Clark Kent's desk, figuring that if he just put the note beside her hand, she'd notice it and grab it. After all, it _was_ for her.

Jimmy tiptoed over to the desk and slipped the note beside her hand. He sighed a sigh of relief and then crawled over to his own desk, causing a few of his co-workers' heads to turn.

Lois noticed something had fallen on the ground after she removed her hand from Clark's desk. She had no idea who it was for, especially because of what it said on the outside, and just assumed someone had left it there for Clark.

"Oh, uh, this is for you, Clark." Lois said, picking the note up off the carpet and handing it to him. How was she supposed to know it was for her? She found it rather strange that someone would just write "FOR YOU" outside of it rather than a name.

"Uh, thanks, Lois." Clark said, hesitantly taking the note from her hand. Lois nodded and smiled in response and walked off. Clark began unrolling the letter, wondering who could possibly be sending him a note.

Meanwhile, Jimmy sat happily at his desk looking around through his camera. Jimmy spotted Lois walking to her desk, but didn't notice the note wasn't in her hand. When he turned his camera towards Clark, he was shocked to see him reading the note to Lois from Richard. Jimmy put his camera down and rushed over to Clark's desk.

"Oh, hi, Jimmy!" Clark said, trying to hide the note under his desk.

"Hey Clark!" Jimmy said with a nervous smile. "What's that you got there?" Clark briefly looked down at his hands, realizing Jimmy was talking about the note.

"What's what?" Clark asked. He was obviously nervous, too.

"I found that on my desk earlier." Jimmy confessed, looking straight at the note.

"Found what?"

"Uh, that note you're holding." Jimmy said, pointing at the note Clark was trying to keep hidden. Clark sighed and pulled it out.

"Oh, t-this?" Clark asked, holding it up. "It's f-for Lois."

"Yeah, you see the thing is I thought she'd notice it if I put it over here where you guys were talking but she ended up giving her personal mail to you." Jimmy explained. "We both read it and I don't think she's going to like that too much." Clark, after hearing this, immediately rolled up the note and put the elastic back around it. The paper was already pretty badly wrinkled, Lois would surely notice that someone else had been reading it.

Jimmy and Clark stared down at the note for a minute before saying anything.

"You take it to her." Clark said, breaking the silence and handed the note to Jimmy. Jimmy pushed it gently back.

"No way!" Jimmy said. "You do it!"

"No because then she'll _k-know_ I read it." Clark said.

"But she'll know _I_ read it!" Jimmy whined.

"Read what?" Lois interrupted. Clark and Jimmy froze and looked her way. She was standing right beside Jimmy with one of her hands on her hips.

"Uh…uh…" Clark stuttered.

"Really… read _what_?" Lois pressed. The constant silences were making her impatient.

"L-Lois, this is really for y-you." Clark responded, handing her the rolled up note that Richard wrote.

"Oh." Lois said, bewildered. She took the note out of Clark's hand. "W-who's it from?"

"It's from Richard." Clark answered.

"You read it?" Lois asked quickly.

"No, no, of course not." Jimmy said, laughing nervously.

"Y-yes." Clark admitted. Lois looked over at Jimmy and raised her eyebrow, he was lying.

"BUT in our defense, we thought it was for us, not you!" Jimmy added. Lois blushed uneasily, thoughts rushing to her of all sorts of things that Richard could've written.

"Um.. Uh.. Please don't repeat anything you read." Lois said. "Just try to forget it." Lois began backing away cautiously.

"Right. In one ear a-and out the other!" Jimmy responded. Clark looked away from Lois and up at Jimmy, giving him a weird look. "What?"

Richard was getting fed up with waiting for Lois and right before he was going to leave, Lois finally came up in the elevator. Richard watched as she walked out of the elevator with the note in her hand.

"Why?" Lois began. "Why the roof, Richard?" When Richard didn't respond, she added in, "You know, Jimmy and Clark read this.". Lois held up the note that Richard had placed on Jimmy's desk earlier. Richard's jaw dropped and he snatched the note out of Lois' hand.

"So, like, what!? You let your little 'buddies' read your PERSONAL mail?" Richard asked.

"No. It was an accident!" Lois snapped. "Anyway, why did you want me to meet you up here?"

"I just wanted you to know that this is the last place where we'll ever speak of our relationship." Richard said, smirking. "You and Superman are always talking up here, I thought I'd make it a little more painful for you so you'd stay away from here for a while." Richard walked up to Lois, breathed in her face and took the elevator back downstairs.

* * *

**To be continued...**


	2. Disconnected

**To my reviewers, whether you liked the story or not, thank you for reviewing! It's really appreciated:)**

**NightyNightUK: **Thanks:) I tried to do well on Clark, Jimmy, and Superman (who is in this chapter). I actually tried to make Lois' character exaggerated, maybe you'll notice that in this chapter? I don't think the chewing thing was cartoon like. I suppose what he chewed on (the garden hose, Lois' shoe, etc) was slightly cartoon-ish, but I used to talk to someone who, apparently, chewed on everything. ;)

****

**I could've been clearer last time but I didn't expect anyone to actually take this story seriously. Readers, this is a HUMOUR story. Nothing in it is serious or meant to be taken like it is.**

* * *

It was Richard who packed all of his belongings and left the house. He decided it would be best to do that, especially because he wanted to be nice to Lois so she might realize what she was losing. And perhaps she'd stay away from Superman.

Once Richard had flown his plane elsewhere, the house and everything in it was Lois'. Richard liked the thought of starting new. He didn't want the space they once shared. It would bring back too many memories of him, Lois and Jason together as a family, and Richard didn't want to look back. It was the future that was important.

Richard ended up purchasing and moving into an apartment right next to his uncle Perry's. It was a decent size for one person and it wasn't too shabby. Together, Richard and Perry painted the walls, bought new furniture and redesigned the entire apartment from beige carpets to red, and from brown walls to white. Richard felt doing this would make the apartment look more valuable and luxurious than it truly was.

"I just don't understand why you dumped her." Perry said one evening over pizza. They sat in the middle of the bedroom Richard would soon be sleeping in.

"Soon, Perry, soon you will." Richard said with confidence in his voice. Perry shrugged and decided to change the subject. If Richard sounded confident about it, then he must've known it was the best thing to do. Perry couldn't help but feel proud of Richard. Maybe he'd sacrificed Lois and Jason for his own good.

At work, Richard was friendly with Lois, and vice versa. It was as if they were never together and they were just friends. Richard was glad things hadn't turned the wrong way, but one fateful day changed everything completely…

"I know you'll probably think differently of Jason, but there's something you need to know, Richard." Lois said. It was a quiet evening at The Daily Planet. Most people, like Jimmy, were heading home from a long day of work.

"Lois," Richard began. "nothing could possibly change-"

"You're not Jason's father." Lois said hesitantly, taking Richard by surprise.

"Uh… what?" Richard asked, suddenly outraged by this news. "If you're joking I ought to-- wait a sec, if I'm not then who is his father?"

"Richard-" Lois began, but Richard wasn't finished talking.

"Oh, wait, let me guess!" Richard chuckled. "Superman, right? There's no way--" Richard burst into a fit of insane laughter.

"Actually, yes, Superman is Jason's father." Lois said. Richard stopped his laughter and looked Lois in the eye.

"B-but… w-what? He's been just like a son to me!" Richard cried.

"I've known it since he returned." Lois said, ignoring what he just said.

"When were you planning on telling me this?" Richard asked.

"If Superman never came back then I would've left it for you to find out on your own." Lois answered. "I certainly wouldn't have said anything. You would've had an episode and I just don't want to deal with that! That's why I am taking full custody of Jason and you won't be able to visit him unless I allow it."

"But- but- L-Lois you c-can't--"

"I can and will." Lois said, sounding certain. "Stay away from Jason and I!" Lois grabbed her purse and stormed off. She had to go pick up Jason from after school daycare.Richard didn't understand… what had he done to cause this?

He froze completely, watching Lois walk out of his life, taking the child he thought was his own with her. He wanted her to beg and plead for him to come back, but from what he saw, she was just fine without him.

* * *

**Richard** says:

Plz tak me bck.

**Lois** says:

Richard??? How did you get my e-mail?

**Richard** says:

PLZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!

_Lois may not reply because he or she appears to be offline._

* * *

It had been nearly a week since Richard had talked to Jason or Lois. It was driving him out of his mind. He missed both of them like crazy. So, Richard decided, as he sat at his computer desk attempting to write an article, to buy Jason a lollipop and bring it to him at school. "That way," Richard thought, smiling to himself. "Lois would have no idea I visited him!".

Richard drove his new yellow car all the way from work to the candy store, and then to Jason's elementary school. He sat in his car, watching Jason play happily in the sand with his friends. Richard took a deep breath, grabbed the paper bag containing the lollipop and he began walking on the playground towards Jason. He saw a few teachers and waved casually at them. When Jason spotted Richard, Richard waved happily.

Jason stopped and stared at Richard. Richard knelt down and held his arms wide open to embrace the child he still felt was his, but all he got was sand in his face.

"What? What did I do?" Richard asked. Luckily, it turned out it was one of Jason's classmates that tossed the sand.

"Hi." Jason said to Richard.

"I brought you something." Richard said, holding up the paper bag and grinning.

"Lunch?" Jason asked. "Mommy said she was going to deliver me lunch but I never knew she was sending you!"

"Well, actually, I got you-"

"Richard!" Lois' voice shouted angrily. She marched up to him and whacked him right on the face with her heavy black purse. "I thought I made it perfectly clear that you can't see Jason!"

"But- I-"

"No! Get out of here right now!" Lois demanded. She hit Richard again before he rushed off the playground in embarrassment, leaving behind the brown paper bag with the lollipop in it. Lois watched him leave, turned to her son, knelt down and said, "Honey, I'm sorry you had to see that."

* * *

"What happened to you?" Jimmy asked as Richard walked in without his usual arrogant smirk on his face.

"Nothing." Richard grunted as he headed for his office. When he reached it, he opened the door quickly and slammed it loudly behind him, accidentally slamming his finger. Richard fell on the ground in pain and imagined what it would've been like if he didn't leave Lois because of his feelings.

* * *

That night, Richard couldn't sleep. He tried waking uncle Perry for a chat, but he wouldn't open the door. Every time Richard knocked or rang the doorbell, Perry would shout, "GO AWAY!!!". Richard sighed and went up to the rooftop of the apartment building. He looked down at the big city, watching the cars go by, and felt a passionate sad tear go down his cheek.

"Why…" Richard whispered miserably to himself. "I can't go on…" Richard slowly started stripping off his green pajama top, and then slipping off his pants. He stood at the rooftop only in his white undergarments. He walked over to the ledge and closed his eyes, preparing to jump until he heard a familiar voice.

"Richard?" Richard opened his eyes to see the very man that had caused Richard's and Lois' relationship to end, or the one he blamed it on, Superman. Richard nearly fell backwards. He felt all hot in the face, even though it was freezing outside. "Richard, what are you doing?"

"I'm…getting some fresh air." Richard replied, trying to act cool. Superman gave Richard a strange look.

"I see you're getting a lot of fresh air." Superman said, slightly amused by Richard's stupidity. Richard got the feeling that Superman thought he was a fool, so he added in, "My pajamas fell off of me." There was an awkward pause for a few minutes and then Richard broke it by saying, "So what!? I'm sure that if-"

"You'd better get dressed, you could, uh, catch a cold out here." Superman said, interrupting Richard. Richard didn't notice it, but Superman didn't really seem like he wanted to stick around.

"Goodnight." Superman turned away and slowly flew off into the distance. Richard watched with a fire inside. He wanted to put on a red sheet and fly, just like Superman, but he knew he was no Superhero. Not to himself. Not to Lois…

* * *

**To be continued...**


	3. Personal

**I figured I'd post up chapter three today. I'm sorry it's so short. I actually thought it was longer. Anyway, I'll try not to make the wait too long for chapters four and five, considering those are the last two. I believe chapter four is short, like this one, but chapter five is long. I'll try and get chapter four up within the next few days!**

**Thanks to reviewers:) **

**Again, don't take this story seriously.**

* * *

A week after that "midnight encounter" with Superman, as Richard called it, Richard felt the need for it to happen again.

"This is crazy." Richard said to himself. He was pacing back and forth in his office, trying to figure out why he felt this way. "Maybe it's because I'd like to jab kryptonite in him!" But Richard knew he would never harm Superman. Ever. It would probably make Lois miserable and, right now, that was the last thing he wanted.

Richard decided that he needed the rest of the day off to clear his mind. He left his office and walked into Perry's to demand it.

"The rest of the day off?" Perry asked before sipping his coffee. "I don't know, Richard, I am waiting on that article from you."

"But Perry--" Richard whined.

"'But' is not a very attractive word." Perry chuckled. Richard didn't find this very funny at all. He just asked for the rest of the day off, and it's not like he ever asked, so Perry didn't really have a reason to refuse his request. "Fine. Fine."

"Thanks Uncle!" Richard cried, and leaped out of his office. He went into his own office, seized his belongings and strolled right out of the Daily Planet. "I need this." Richard whispered to himself in the elevator… and maybe he did.

* * *

Richard spent his afternoon lounging around his apartment in his navy silk robe, which he purchased for himself a few days ago at Victoria's Secret when he felt he should indulge a little more.

He laid on his sofa, drinking lemonade and watching Soap Operas, completely forgetting the reason why he had to get a break off of work.

Finally, Richard got bored of the Soap Operas and fixed himself up some dinner. It was much later than he thought. "Perhaps I should do something a little more industrious." Richard thought, trying to remember why it is he was at home right now and not at work writing an article.

It took Richard nearly two hours to figure out what exactly he needed a break for. He needed to figure out why he had such a desire to see and speak to Superman again. Deep down, Richard knew why, but he couldn't quite figure out _what_ he knew.

Later that night, Richard decided it was time. Time for him to see Superman. But first thing was first… how would he get his attention?

"Simple! I'll call Lois and ask her." Richard said happily and began dialing her phone number.

Lois was writing out yet another article on Superman when she heard the phone ring. She didn't bother looking at the caller ID before picking up.

"Hello?"

"Lois." Richard said, happy to hear her voice.

"What do you want?" Lois asked, changing her tone. She recognized the way the person on the other line said her name. It was Richard.

"Please, hear me out, Lois." Richard began, hoping she wouldn't hang up. "I just want to know… how do you get Superman's attention when you need it most?"

"What? Are you writing an article or something?" Lois asked.

"No, I just… want to know." Richard sighed.

"Look, I know you're upset but THAT is no way to handle this." Lois said. Richard knew what she meant, but he didn't mean it like that.

"No, that's not-"

"I have to go." Lois said, and hung up the phone.

Richard groaned and decided to just see if he could get Superman's attention his own way. He didn't know any way to do it, so he just tried talking to see if Superman would hear him.

"Superman…" Richard whispered to the sky, hoping that he heard. "I need to… see you." Richard closed his eyes and felt a tear slide down his cheek. "The desire is so bad it hurts." Richard said to himself.

"What desire?" Richards eyes opened to see Superman standing on the ledge of the building.

"Y-you were listening?" Richard asked, as he straightened up himself.

"Yes." Superman replied. "What is it you need?"

"I wanted to uh-" Richard gazed into Superman's blue eyes. He couldn't help but feel something he's felt for a long time. "Talk."

"Talk?"

"Yeah… _talk_." Richard said, trying to make it sound less awkward than it was.

"If this is about Lois I-"

"No, it's not." Richard said calmly. "That chapter of my life is over. The page has turned." Richard tried his best not to get angry. He knew exactly what he was going to say. "I don't need your excuses." Richard thought.

"Man to man." Richard said, smiling. "I mean, we have both been with the same woman."

"I thought this wasn't about Lois." Superman said, sounding rather confused.

"It's not!" Richard said quickly. For the next few minutes, all Richard heard was the wind and the sounds of the city. He was having trouble coming up with a starter. Finally, he got the perfect idea…

"So, Jason's your kid." Richard said, getting Superman's attention. "I knew there was something wrong with him."

"Excuse me?" Superman said.

"No, no, not like that!" Richard said, realizing that Superman got what he said the wrong way. "I meant that there was something about him that didn't seem right… like, you know, I thought he was my kid for five years but he wasn't so no wonder something was strange!" When Superman didn't respond, Richard knew he had to keep talking.

"Uh… so, you're a pretty bad father." Richard said, and then regretted it. "I mean not like abusive bad but you weren't there for-"

"I know." Superman said.

"So, are you and Lois considering getting back together?" Richard asked, trying to get Superman's mind off of what he'd just said.

"What? But aren't you still with her?" Superman asked. Richard shook his head.

"I broke up with her." Richard confessed. He felt the pain pierce his heart. Maybe he shouldn't have done it. "It wasn't working. So I figured that maybe she'd already told you…" Richard looked Superman in the eye and for a minute thought he saw a sign of happiness.

"I'm sorry." Superman said.

"No you're not." Richard assumed. "I saw the look on your face, darn it! You still love her, don't you!?"

"What are you talking about?" Superman said, he didn't at all seem concerned by Richard accusing him of still loving Lois. Richard noticed this and let it go.

"I'm sorry." Richard said, feeling guilty. "I was angry. I was jealous. I was… _selfish_. I wanted to kill you because I thought it might make me happy, but it would've just brought grief to everyone. I let go of Lois because my heart told me to. But it didn't just start two weeks ago. When you returned, my heart ached with pain and I knew why. But I held on as tight as I could." Richard felt tears fall down his cheeks. He looked up at Superman who was giving him a slightly sympathetic look, but also a strange one. Maybe Richard shouldn't have told him about the killing part…

"It's not your fault." Richard lied. "Of course it's your fault!" Richard thought angrily. "I never will forget the look upon Lois' face when she turned away. I'll never forget the-"

"Richard, I have to go." Superman interrupted. It must've been something important. Richard looked sadly at him, which made Superman add in, "We can continue this another time. Goodnight…". Richard waved sadly. He couldn't find the words to speak, but maybe he had to go. "People to save…" Richard thought.

Once Superman disappeared into the dark, Richard felt happy, but the desire to see him again was a burning flame inside of him that just wouldn't go out and it was worse than before…

* * *

**To be continued...**


	4. Lying

**This is the second to last chapter, and it is, again, very short. **

**L.E. Jones1: **Lois didn't break up with Richard, he broke up with her. The part where she tells Richard he can't see Jason anymore wasn't actually supposed to be funny, it was just another unreasonable event in the story.

**omgiminheat: **This story was all written out and edited before I decided to post it up on fan fiction. I believe I've said this before (maybe not in an author note, but in a message to one of the reviewers), I wrote this story for my own amusement. If it's for myself or someone else, I have no reason to try to hard if I'm happy with what the result is. The flame thing? I consider a flame a review where someone goes something like this,

"omfggg u sukkk u dum b. u shud dieee fat cow becuz ur story suxxx."

It does get worse than that, but that's just a little example. When I said, "If you have a problem with my story, then don't read it." I meant that towards people who would be like the example. I do _not_ consider your review, or another other from someone who hasn't liked my story much either, a flame.

As for "stretching" the silliness on for humor stories? I disagree. Not everyone is going to enjoy chapters and chapters about how dramatic, horrifying, or romantic a character's life is. Some, like me, prefer humor stories. Yeah, some humorous things are better off being one chapter or so, but others could go longer. My story? It only has five chapters and that really isn't very long.

**Thank you to the reviewers! I know some of you don't like my story, but thanks for taking the time to review anyway. :)**

**On to the chapter...**

* * *

Weeks had passed since that night. Richard had made a time and day of when he could talk to Superman. Each and every time Richard talked to him, the craving inside got bigger and bigger. He longed more and more for Superman's presence. 

Richard wasn't sure what to think of this. It wasn't love and it wasn't hate, so what was it? Richard tried telling himself that perhaps it was _friendship_, but what kind of friendship included a burning desire?

Every time Richard read another article of Lois' about Superman, he just chuckled. Richard felt like he knew Superman better than Lois, even thought Superman barely said anything whenever they met up and talked. It was Richard that let out his feelings and things about his past.

One Thursday morning at The Daily Planet, Richard decided it was time. Time he went to Perry and asked him straight out if he could get a shot at…

"Writing an article about Superman?" Perry asked, raising his eyebrow. He had a doubtful look on his face.

"Yes, Perry." Richard said. "I think I could do it… really well."

"But that's Lois' specialty!" Perry said.

"_Specialty_?" Richard snorted. "More like, uh, not!"

"I'll ask Lois." Perry decided. He felt this was the best option because he knew Richard would write something hateful about him.

"_Ask_ LOIS!?" Richard said rudely.

"Unless you'd like to…" Perry said.

"Fine." Richard said, getting out of his seat. "You ask her." Perry nodded and Richard left the office and went straight into his. He looked over at Lois' desk and watched as she talked to Clark and laughed a little.

Richard turned away, feeling dark. He tried so hard to remember Lois' precious laugh. He tried remembering the moments she smiled at him, the moments she cried, the moments she was angry… the moment she denied loving Superman after he returned.

"No." Richard whispered. "I can't regret what I've done." Richard turned to his computer screen and began writing out the article about Europe Perry had been expecting for almost a month and a half.

Perry and Lois sat in silence in Perry's office ten minutes later. Lois tapped her foot impatiently as Perry hesitated to ask her. She'd written practically all the Superman articles _ever_ and Perry wasn't sure she would give them up just once for a man she seemed to loathe.

"Well?" Lois said, breaking the silence. "I do have articles to write."

"How would you feel about letting someone else write an article about Superman?" Perry asked. Lois paused and seemed to think about it for a few seconds.

"Depends on who…" Lois answered. "Why?"

"Because I had someone come into my office not too long ago and ask me if they could write one." Perry explained. "But since you're the one who always writes the articles about him then I thought you could decide…"

"Who?" Lois asked, ignoring what Perry said.

"Well…" Perry began. "Richard." Lois suddenly felt possessive, and angrily wondered _why_ Richard would ever want to write an article about Superman, unless it was something hateful and rude. Lois calmed herself down and then said, "Well, Chief, I'll just go tell him my answer in person."

"But- uh-" Perry stuttered.

"Don't worry," Lois said, getting out of her seat and leaving the office. She walked over to Richard's office and knocked on the door. Richard turned in his chair to see Lois outside the door. He couldn't help but smile.

"Come in," Richard said. Lois opened the door, stepped in, and then shut the door, surprisingly locking it behind her. "what can I do-"

"You want to write an article about SUPERMAN!?" Lois asked angrily. "Why!? So you can write about how you are so jealous and you want to jab him with kryptonite?"

"Lois, this is simply irrational thinking." Richard said calmly with a smirk on his face.

"No." Lois said. "That's my answer."

"B-but-"

"No 'buts'! It's final!" Lois said and stormed out of his office. Richard sighed sadly and turned to his computer screen, briefly reading a sentence he wrote to start his article about Superman.

* * *

"Why did you come and ask me if you could write an article about Superman?" Perry asked Richard that evening over dinner at his apartment. Richard seemed to be upset about something. Perry wasn't sure if it was what Lois said to him or if it was just talking to Lois for the first time in a while. 

"I just…" Richard began. He paused for a minute, remembering why he asked. He looked up at Perry and suddenly smiled. "I just feel like I know him." Perry raised his eyebrow and stared for a few seconds before replying.

"Why?" Perry asked.

"Oh, Perry, we've been meeting up a lot lately and talking to each other." Richard said happily. Perry's eyes lit up. Perhaps letting Richard write an article about him and what he's like would be a great idea.

"He TALKS to _you_?" Perry asked quickly.

"Yeah," Richard said coolly.

"About what?" Perry asked. He was getting excited.

"Everything. Lois, Jason, life…" Richard said and then stopped to think. Superman hardly talked, he realized, he just listened to Richard. "Wait…"

"What!? This is great news!" Perry said. "You're going to be writing a good- no a _great_ story!"

"But Perry I-"

"Shush! This is just spectacular." Perry said excitedly. "Get down everything he's told you in point form, write the article, and have it on my desk tomorrow morning!" Perry grabbed both of their plates of food, scraped them in his garbage can and put them in the sink.

"Perry, please, I actually meant that…"

"What?" Richard was ready to confess: Superman didn't talk, he just did. But maybe this was his chance to prove to Metropolis that he wrote better articles about Superman than Lois Lane did. Maybe this was going to get him a new carpet and… so many other things he's wanted for so long.

"That I'd love to!" Richard said, getting out of his seat. "Perry, trust me, you won't regret this!"

When Richard got into his apartment, he headed straight for the computer. Once he was comfortable, he began typing out things about Superman. Richard soon realized something, what he'd written out in point form was things he _already_ knew. Things Metropolis already knew.

"No… this is my chance…" Richard thought. He backspaced all of what he'd written and wrote newer, juicier facts about Superman. Facts he'd come up with all by himself…

The next morning, Richard was awake at six o'clock AM. He showered and made himself a special breakfast. Richard twirled about the living room happily. His article, to him was so good that he couldn't wait until it got into the paper tomorrow.

Richard imagined his article on the front page and people from work all around him congratulating him on his "amazing" article _including_ Lois Lane. But then he imagined Superman being hurt by what Richard had done. He'd made up a bunch of exaggerated facts on him and released them for everyone to see.

Richard stopped fantasizing about reactions and being showered with attention and decided it was time for him to head to The Daily Planet.

Luckily Richard forget all that he imagined earlier when he stepped off the elevator and headed straight for his uncle's office. As he walked, he waved casually to a few people before stepping inside the office. He placed the article right in front of Perry, sat down and eagerly waited for him to say something.

Perry seemed to be very, very interested in the article. Richard could've sworn her saw him read it twice. "Because it's just that good…" Richard thought smugly to himself. He couldn't wait for Perry to say something.

"I'm speechless." Perry finally said. Richard nodded, as if he knew Perry would be. He actually expected him to say something else, but being speechless was a good thing… wasn't it? Perry's look of awe changed to a look of mixed emotion, Richard wasn't sure what to think now.

"Indeed…" Richard smiled apprehensively. Was Perry's new facial expression a bad thing? "Uh… Perry?"

"Huh? Oh, oh, yes?" Perry said.

"What do you think?" Richard asked. He got a feeling that this wasn't going to be good…

"Oh, right." Perry said. He cleared his throat and put the papers back down on his desk. "Richard, I feel like you exaggerated. This is so much information… how could _you_, a Superman hater, obtain this kind of information? This seems so, so _personal_." Richard was offended, he didn't hate Superman at all. But he knew that he had exaggerated facts he didn't even know. He couldn't admit it, though, Perry would be enraged, especially because Richard had told him he felt like he knew him. "Face it, you idiot, you only _felt_ like you knew him! You don't know him!" a voice in Richard's head said.

"I…" Richard began. He couldn't bring himself to confess, it was too hard, so he decided to lie. "I found the facts on this website. I lied when I said I felt like I knew him because I know I don't know him and I never will."

"What website?" Perry asked. "I must report them! This information is- it's simply outrageous!"

"It's…" Richard sighed. He couldn't think up a fake address to a website and even if he did, Perry wouldn't find the facts. "I forget." Perry sighed and merely let it go.

"We'll pretend this never happened." Perry said, sounding disappointed. He handed Richard the papers and asked him politely to leave his office.

* * *

**To be continued...**


	5. Who Loves You?

**Alright, here it is. I meant to put it up yesterday but I didn't have time. :\**

**If you see any spelling errors or grammar mistakes or something silly like that, sorry about it. I must've missed it when editing this one. **

**I really don't have anything else to say, so enjoy the last chapter! ;)**

* * *

Richard sat in his office, the papers that had his Superman article on it were beside his computer. He couldn't look at them, he was ashamed. He'd spent hours on making up lies about Superman and this was his result: sitting, all alone, in his office. No praise. No happiness. No _Lois_. Just lies. Lies he made up so he could be loved by his colleagues, and loved, again, by Lois.

Richard wasted the rest of the day feeling sorry for himself. He stopped feeling guilty about it an hour after Perry had read it. Who would possibly read it anyway? It's not like Superman knew, or Lois for that matter, so it was no big deal-- or so he thought.

Late afternoon came and Richard decided it was time he went home. He'd had a long day of feeling sorry for himself and he felt he needed a break. Richard held his writing about Superman in his hands as he walked towards the elevator. Nobody was really around, except for a few notable people like Lois, but otherwise that was it.

Richard had almost reached the elevator when he felt that it wasn't such a good idea to bring the Superman article home. He looked around the room, hoping no one would notice, and he crinkled up the papers and aimed for a random trash bin. When he threw it, he missed, but didn't notice. He just wanted to get out of there.

It was almost eight o'clock and Lois was still working at The Daily Planet. Her son, Jason, sat down beside her as she typed an article out on her computer. Jason didn't complain all that much when he had to stay at work late with his mother, but he was hungry and he wanted to go home.

"Mommy," Jason whined. "I'm hungry."

"Hold on, sweetie, I'm almost done." Lois replied. She didn't bother to turn her head away from the computer screen.

"But you said that a long time ago!" Jason cried. Lois sighed, she knew it was time to leave.

"Okay, okay, we'll go in just a minute." Lois said, finishing up the article. Jason waited impatiently in his seat. He watched as the janitor picked up a piece of garbage off the floor and unwrinkled it. He obviously read a sentence or two of it before walking over to Lois and handing it to her.

"I believe this is yours," The janitor said, handing Lois the papers. It was the Superman article Richard wrote the other night. Lois looked up at him and raised her eyebrow. The janitor quickly realized and then added, "it's one of your famous Superman articles!".

"Oh, well, thanks." Lois said, obliviously taking the article and shoving it into her bag.

Once Jason had dinner and was in bed, Lois decided it was time for her to organize her purse. She hadn't done it in months and it was terribly heavy with change. She dumped her purse all over the kitchen table and sorted through it, shoving aside some receipts from the grocery store and candy wrappers that belonged to Jason.

As Lois rearranged her purse, something caught her eye. It was the wrinkled papers the janitor had handed her. They were in the pile of garbage from her purse. Lois wasn't sure why one of her articles would be on the floor at The Daily Planet, so she decided to grab the papers and see which one it was. There was obviously a reason why someone would throw something like that away.

Lois read the title, which said, "KNOW OUR HERO" in capitalized, bold letters. She didn't recognize this title at all. "Hmm… must be someone else's." Lois thought before reading who the article was by, and she was, in fact, very alarmed when she read RICHARD WHITE.

* * *

What seemed to be another boring day at work for Richard was going to turn into something else. Lois had just arrived in the elevator with the article in her purse. She was fuming, how could _anyone_, especially Richard White, write such an article about a hero? Lois didn't know.

Last night, after finishing it, Lois thought perhaps she'd tell everyone but then she decided that wouldn't do any good. She knew the better thing to do was tell the hero himself what his little buddy had done. After all, she knew that Superman had to put up with Richard talking on and on about the little things in life for hours. He only did to be nice. He sort of felt sorry for Richard because his life seemed to be so revolved around Lois.

Lois looked over at Richard, he was sitting his office doing nothing, like he usually did these days. Lois rolled her eyes. Tonight she would tell Superman everything, that is, if he showed up while she was on the roof.

* * *

It was lunchtime and Jimmy invited Richard to join him for lunch. Although Richard didn't like Jimmy very much, he went anyways because he had nobody else to eat lunch with.

"I would've invited Clark but he's busy." Jimmy said as they went down to the first floor in the elevator. Richard didn't realize Jimmy was saying that Richard was his last resort, he was much too focused on the fact that he was going out to lunch with someone from work for the first time in a while.

Jimmy and Richard wound up going to Subway for lunch. Richard felt stupid being there, he expected to go somewhere a little more expensive, but he tried to just be thankful that he was going for lunch with anyone at all.

"What are you going to order?" Richard asked Jimmy.

"My usual," Jimmy said. "a nice turkey sandwich with two cookies and a coke, of course!" Richard imagined it would be something special if he had it all the time, but it was just a plain old boring meal he could make himself at home.  
As Richard studied the menu, he started seeing things. It looked as if everything had Superman in it. Richard suddenly felt dizzy and every word he heard was "Superman". Nothing made sense anymore. Everything seemed to begin spinning. He saw Superman everywhere. At the tables, behind him, in front of him, making sandwiches and taking orders. He couldn't believe his eyes.

"Richard? Richard?" Jimmy said, shaking him and sounding concerned.

"HELP ME!!!" Richard cried and fell to his knees. Jimmy looked around nervously, hoping Richard's cries weren't causing people to look his way. "PLEASE, STOP SAYING HIS NAME!!! I WON'T DO IT AGAIN. I BEG OF YOU!!!"

"Who's name?" Jimmy asked. Immediately, Richard felt normal again. Jimmy looked like Jimmy and everyone looked as they did when he walked in. Superman was out of sight.

"Uh… wow…" Richard said uneasily. "I must've been having a panic attack!"

"Oh, I didn't know you got those." Jimmy said. Richard realized he was on the floor and got up quickly. He brushed off his pants and decided to order what Jimmy was having.

Jimmy and Richard sat at a yellow table for two and ate their lunch, talking every now and then, but it was mostly silent. All Richard could think about was his little moment earlier. He wasn't sure what to think of it. Perhaps it was guilt, but Richard didn't feel guilty about it. He felt bad-- for _himself_.

"Hey Richard…" Jimmy said, interrupting Richard's "deep" thoughts. "Earlier you said you wouldn't do it again… what exactly is it you did?"

"Uh…" Richard tried as hard as he could to think up excuses, but none came to mind. He knew exactly what he wouldn't do again and it was bothering him like crazy for some strange reason. He had so many mixed emotions it was hard to tell how exactly he felt about Superman. He couldn't tell if the article bothered him because he hated Superman or if he loved him. "But I don't love him." Richard thought, forgetting that Jimmy was waiting on an answer. "We're just friends." Richard assured himself and took a big bite of his sandwich. Jimmy shrugged and decided to leave it, thinking Richard might be going insane.

"Jimmy, I have an overactive imagination." Richard said as he chewed on his food. "I sometimes imagine up things in my mind and they become so real to me."

"Don't worry about it, man." Jimmy said. A few minutes passed before Jimmy said anything again. Richard wasn't sure that Jimmy was the best person to converse with. "Have you considered counseling?"

"Huh? What for?" Richard asked.

"Clearly you're still troubled by your break up with Lois, Richard!" Jimmy said.

"How did you know about that?" Richard asked, then he remembered the note Jimmy and Clark read. "Never mind… but, Jimmy, I'm not troubled. I'm perfectly happy right now. Lois was just an obstacle thrown in my path of life, I don't need her." Jimmy looked doubtful.

* * *

Richard sat in his office at sunset, doodling with a pencil on lined paper. He thought about what Jimmy had said earlier about Lois, and maybe he was right. Richard was still troubled by it because she was still slightly in his life. They barely spoke, but when they did Richard would remember all their good times and he was tired of looking back.

Richard decided he needed someone to talk to and the person to talk to might just be Jimmy. He hadn't known him long enough to be able to determine whether or not he could keep a secret, but he could ask. It never hurt to just _ask_.

"Hi, Jimmy!" Richard said, he was standing behind Jimmy's chair. "How's it going?"

"Oh, Richard, hi!" Jimmy replied, Richard had startled him. "What can I do for you?"

"I wanted to ask you something…" Richard said, slightly embarrassed.

"Okay."

"Can you keep a secret?" Richard asked.

"Definitely!" Jimmy nodded happily. "Why?"

"No reason," Richard said, putting his hands in his pockets. He was too afraid of being rejected by Jimmy. He needed someone to talk to since Perry never listened to him when it came to problems in his life.

"Alright," Jimmy shrugged. "but if you do ever need to talk I'm here!" Richard nodded and started walking away, feeling it was too much to ask for. "Jimmy is just being nice to me because he feels sorry for me." Richard thought miserably. On the other hand, though, Richard felt like everyone felt sorry for him. Richard paused and turned around, he was going to ask Jimmy, and stop being so afraid of rejection.

"Can we talk?" Richard asked. Jimmy looked up, evidently surprised. "In my office."

"Uh… yeah." Jimmy said, still surprised. Richard turned and headed for his office, Jimmy got out of his seat and tagged along.

"You said you could keep a secret and I need someone to talk to…" Richard said.

"Cool-- uh, I mean, alright." Jimmy said. Richard sighed and began talking. At first he was hesitant about it, but Jimmy was a good listener so he started saying more and more. Eventually, Richard was comfortable with him and he told him everything. He told him about his troubles with Lois, how he felt about not being able to see Jason, without adding in that he wasn't his son, about Superman, and so many things Richard never said to Perry.

"So, you don't hate Superman?" Jimmy asked.

"I don't think so." Richard said. "We have this _bond_. He's kind of like B.F. to me."

"A boyfriend!?" Jimmy asked.

"No!" Richard said defensively. "I meant a _best friend_." Richard paused… or did he? He knew he felt for Superman in a way, but he was almost convinced it was just brotherly love or something. Superman wasn't his boyfriend at all, they had never done anything romantic together. However, there was something about what Jimmy had said that made him think about really liking Superman in that sort of way. "There is no way!" Richard thought to himself. It seemed impossible. He never minded Superman before, but that was before he and Lois dated and eventually became engaged. The only reason he hated him before was because of jealousy, nothing else. But once he let that go, another feeling took over. "It's friendship." Richard assured himself.

"How can he be?" Jimmy asked. "You don't even like him-"

"How could you say that?" Richard asked, frustrated that everyone still assumed he despised him. "We talk all the time. I think he likes me."

"What? Likes you!?"

"I meant as a friend!" Richard said, feeling his face get all warm. "Great. Another reference to being gay for him. How much can I possibly embarrass myself in front of this guy!?" Richard thought.

"Oh." Jimmy said. "Sorry, Richard, I guess I'm thinking irrational things! Why would you consider Superman a boyfriend and why would you think he likes you? Ha! That's just too funny!" Richard didn't find this amusing for some reason, he actually found it rather insulting.

"Yeah, yeah," Richard said grumpily. Jimmy was still chuckling about what he'd assumed. "Alright, that's enough-- err, I mean, Jimmy shouldn't we be getting back to work?"

"More like shouldn't we be going home!?" Jimmy asked. "Well, Richard man, it was great talking to you but Jimmy here has to get himself home for dinner. My mom's coming into town and I want to have something special prepared!"

"Right," Richard said, raising an eyebrow. "fair enough. Thanks for the chat, Jimmy. See you tomorrow."

"Hey, man, no problem!" Jimmy said. "'Night." Richard watched Jimmy leave his office. Once he was gone, Richard sighed of relief, hoping Jimmy's absent mindedness would make him completely forget everything he told him.

Lois was still at her desk, but luckily tonight Jason had a babysitter. Lois was glad she would get some extra time to work without Jason saying he wanted to go home. Lois wasn't the only one working late, Clark, Perry, and a few other people were still hanging around.

Lois looked over at the article Richard had written. It was on her desk, face up, first page, for anyone who passed by to read, however nobody who passed by bothered to even look down at it. Lois was slightly thankful for this, especially because _Richard_ wrote it.

"Hey Lois," A voice said, sounding rather suspicious, Lois turned to see Jimmy standing beside her chair. Lois felt tense, he was standing right beside the article.

"Uh, yes?" Lois asked quickly.

"Do you and Clark always work late _together_?" Jimmy asked.

"N-no," Lois stuttered, relieved that Jimmy didn't say anything about Superman article. "why?"

"I don't know," Jimmy said. "I just saw him sitting over there so I thought, 'Whoa, there's something strange about that!'."

"Why?" Lois asked. "How is that strange?"

"It isn't really." Jimmy said, placing his hand on top of the papers Lois feared he'd read. "Hmm… well, goodnight, Lois!"

"Bye," Lois replied, watching him and making sure he didn't snatch up the papers. Luckily he didn't, instead he accidentally knocked the first one off. Lois didn't notice this, she just turned back to her computer screen and continued to work.

Unfortunately, Clark happened to be walking by, about to leave work, and spotted the paper on the ground. It wasn't face up, so he didn't know that it was about Superman. He stopped, walked over to the paper and picked it up.

KNOW OUR HERO

by Richard White

Some of you may get the idea that Lois Lane is the only one in Metropolis who knows our hero, Superman, but luckily that is untrue. I, Richard White, have known Superman myself for quite some time. He and I are, in fact, buddies. We talk quite regularly and here I am today, with Superman's permission, to write an article about him.

Most of you may think you know the man of steel, but you don't. Metropolis, I bring you today an article full of surprise that could make your jaw drop or your heart stop, so be prepared, here comes the shock of your life when you really get to KNOW OUR HERO.

Clark stopped reading it immediately. From some of the words he saw in the next few paragraphs, he wasn't sure he wanted to continue. He looked at Lois, her attention was still on the computer.

"Uh… Lois?" Clark said.

"Hm?" Lois mumbled, not even turning her head in his direction.

"This fell off of your desk," Clark said, holding out the paper, expecting her to grab it. But she didn't. "Uh, okay, I'll just put it on your desk."

"Right. Thanks, Jimmy," Lois said.

"Uh… you mean _Clark_." Clark said. "B-bye, Lois." Lois just nodded as if to show she acknowledged him. She never turned her head to see him, she didn't even say goodbye. Clark slowly walked to the elevator, stepped inside, and went down.

Minutes after he was gone, Lois turned her head to see the paper Clark placed back on her desk was the one Richard wrote. Lois jumped out of her seat and looked around.

"Clark!?" Lois called. No response. "Ugh, darn it!" Lois muttered, thinking that he had read the entire page. But he was gone and there wasn't a thing she could do.

Lois sighed, looked at the time on her computer and decided that it was time for her to go upstairs… to the roof. She wasn't sure if she'd see Superman, but she was hoping she would. Lois grabbed the papers off of her desk and started walking to the elevator. By now, most people had gone home from work. Lois was glad, that way it wouldn't be as likely for someone to come up in the middle of her meeting with him, except for Richard, but he rarely came onto the roof of The Daily Planet.

Lonely was how Richard felt. He sat in his dark office, staring off into the bright white screen of his computer. He felt as though so many thoughts were rushing to his head, but he was only thinking of one person: Superman. Not Lois. Not Jason. _Superman_, of all people. "Why him?" Richard asked himself. He knew that the answer was there, he just couldn't find it-- or maybe he knew it but something kept him from believing it was the real answer.

Richard looked over at his wall and spotted something dark moving slowly. Richard got out of his chair, flicked on the light, and saw that it was a large cockroach.

"EW!!!" Richard cried. He dove for his bag, searching through it to see if he'd brought along some form of spray to kill the roach with. "Aha! Hairspray!" Richard looked in the mirror hanging on his wall and lightly sprayed some in his hair before spraying it all over the roach, which fell off of the wall and on it's back. Richard smirked arrogantly until it unexpectedly got back on it's legs.

"AH!!!" He squealed. "I GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE!" Richard grabbed his bag, shut off the computer and rushed out of there as quickly as he could. Richard sighed of relief and began walking through the office towards the elevator, noticing that everyone had already gone home except for Lois.

"I wonder why her computer's still on." Richard whispered. "Her coat and purse are still here so she must be, too." Richard scanned the room, but nobody was in it except himself, well, for the moment.

Richard sat down in Lois' chair and ran his fingers across her desktop, almost feeling her touch. Then he gently ran his fingers across Lois' keyboard continuously before stroking the mouse like it was a cat. Richard turned to see Lois' coat hanging on her chair. He grabbed it off and start sniffing it and rubbing it all over his face.

"Ahh… the smell of Lois." Richard sighed. He remembered all the good times with Lois, but he didn't want her back.

"What the heck are you doing!?" A familiar voice asked angrily. Richard dropped the coat on the floor and saw Lois standing behind him. Richard jumped out of her seat and tried to straighten himself up.

"Nothing, duh!" Richard said rudely.

"Now I'm going to have to bleach this coat!" Lois said and rolled her eyes. "Why haven't you gone home yet!?"

"Why haven't you?" Richard asked in response to her question.

"Because I'm busy!" Lois snapped.

"Doing what?" Richard asked. "Secretly gazing at pictures of Superman!?"

"God, Richard, you'll just never get over it, will you?" Lois asked. "Forget it. I'm leaving." Lois shut off her computer, grabbed her bag and coat and walked off to the elevator. Richard stood and watched as she left. Richard would've just went home, but he stood behind and watched what floor she'd gone to. Richard thought she was going home, but instead she was going up to the roof. Richard suddenly felt a mix of a fear, jealousy and sadness. He knew what he had to do. He was going to follow her and see what she was up to, whether it was smoking a cigarette or meeting up with Superman. He _had_ to know.

Richard rushed to the elevator and pressed to button for it to come back down. Once he did, he stepped on and pressed the same button Lois did minutes earlier. Richard couldn't stand being in there all alone listening to elevator music, it gave him headaches and he always became tense when he had a headache.

Finally, the doors opened. Richard tiptoed out of the elevator and found a spot to put his belongings before searching around for Lois. He was sure he heard whispers from both a male and female. Richard knew exactly who was there. "Superman and Lois…" Richard thought, resentment burning inside. He slowly walked to the corner, immediately spotting Superman and Lois. He knelt down and watched what they were doing.

Lois handed Superman a few papers and said something to him about them. All Richard heard was mumbles, he wasn't sure what the papers had printed on them. "She-she's writing a tell-all book about me and letting _him_ sample it!" Richard thought angrily, he was about to spring up and start yelling but then Superman did something to the papers. He burnt them with his laser vision and let go of them, clearly hurt by the words on them. They blew in the cold wind towards Richard. Richard snatched the nearest one and looked at it, recognizing every sentence.

"No…" Richard whispered, wondering how Lois could've got a hold of his Superman article. He looked over the corner and saw Lois and Superman getting closer. He no longer felt sadness, now he felt pure hate and jealousy. It wasn't fair. He wasn't going to lose everything again. He needed another chance.

"Thank you for showing me what he wrote," Richard heard Superman say to Lois.

"I just wanted you to know what he really thought." Lois replied, looking into his blue eyes. Richard was fuming now and he could no longer hold it back.

"NO!!!" Richard shouted. Lois and Superman turned their heads to see Richard charging towards them. "How could you!?"

"How could _I_?" Lois asked, shocked by what he was saying. "Richard, we've been over for weeks, how could you say that to me now!? I'm not-"

"Shut up, woman!" Richard snapped. "I wasn't talking to you." Lois' jaw dropped. If he wasn't talking to her he must've been talking to Superman. Richard turned to Superman and looked him in the eye.

"How could you do this?" Richard asked sadly.

"How could I? What do you mean?" Superman asked.

"You- you're with- Lois- I-" Richard stuttered.

"How could I? How could you!" Superman said. "You wrote all these lies about me and you think I'm doing something wrong?"

"I didn't mean to…" Richard said, feeling his eyes fill with tears. He closed his eyes tightly, feeling the tears run down his cheeks, and said, "I just thought we… had something special."

"Uh… special? Us? Richard..." Superman said.

"There was!" Richard cried. "I love you!" He hardly knew what he was saying, it surprised him just as much as it surprised Superman and Lois. But he didn't blush and he wasn't denying it inside. It was how he truly felt and now he finally knew. He felt a sense of relief now that the emotion was out.

"WHAT!?" Lois shouted.

"Lois, I didn't leave you because I thought you loved Superman," Richard said calmly. "I left you because _I_ love Superman!"

"This is just… unbelievable." Lois said, dumbfounded. She looked up at Superman, who was staring at Richard in awe. The look on his face worried Lois greatly… Richard looked up into Superman's blue eyes, hoping to see love, but he didn't. He saw something else. Something indescribable…

"Please… don't look at me like that." Richard pleaded. "I know you feel it, too. It's written in your eyes," But it wasn't. He just told himself it was. "You feel _it_. Don't deny..." Lois looked at Richard for a minute, she could see the pain in his eyes. Since he left her he's been so alone.

"Richard, you're-"

"No, Lois," Richard said. "I was so lonely… without you. Without Jason. Superman, without knowing it, you helped me through that tough time in my life and now, like in all the romance movies, we've fallen in love."

"We!?" Lois repeated, outraged.

"Uh, no, not _we_. _You_. Just you." Superman corrected. "Richard, I spent time with you because I knew that you had nobody to talk to and I just wanted to help you get through this tough time. I didn't fall in love with you."

Richard stared down at the ground. The tears forming in his eyes caused his vision to blur, but he just wiped them away. "Richard, be strong." He told himself. He didn't want to breakdown in front of Lois _and_ Superman. He looked up at Superman and tried his best to smile and show, without words, that he understood. Richard began to slowly walk to the ledge of the rooftop, and he climbed up.

"Richard, don't…" Superman said quietly. Richard shook his head.

"No…" Richard said quietly. "Words aren't necessary." Richard closed his eyes and felt the cold wind on his wet face. Snot trickled out of his nose and the tears wouldn't stop coming. It was time. Richard kept his eyes tightly shut as he stood up on the edge and slowly fell back.

Everything flashed before him and then he wondered how he'd die. Perhaps he'd fall on the road and get hit by many passing cars or maybe he would fall on the sidewalk or someone walking on the sidewalk or Perry White or--

"AHHH!!!" Richard screamed. This wasn't such a good idea after all. Superman had luckily already caught him. Richard felt safe and warm in his arms. "Y-you saved me." Richard whispered romantically. Superman didn't seem to enjoy the tone Richard was using at all. He didn't even reply to Richard. Superman landed on the rooftop and put Richard down. Lois rushed over to him and knelt down to see his face.

"Are you okay?" Lois asked, sounding very concerned.

"Y-yes, I am." Richard replied, looking into Lois' eyes. He felt happy for a split second until he felt a hand strike him hard on the cheek.

"You're an idiot!" Lois said angrily. "Suicide never does anyone any good! It's selfish!" Lois shook her head and stood up. She walked slowly over to Superman and looked up at him. Richard turned his head to see them together. He felt the jealousy burning up inside, but now he knew better than to react with it. Despite his efforts, he didn't stand a chance.

Richard shed one last tear and slowly walked back to the elevator. He definitely pictured this night much differently. Everything that could've gone wrong had. He was rejected, Lois slapped him, he nearly commit suicide and regretted jumping off the rooftop as he was falling. He did feel like an idiot inside, but he wasn't ashamed of his feelings.

The elevator door opened and Richard turned to look back one last time. Superman and Lois didn't seem to notice he was about to leave, so he decided to say one last thing.

"Superman, if you ever change your mind…" He said softly and then paused. "I'll be here." Lois looked from Richard to Superman. Superman raised his eyebrow slightly and then nodded. Richard smiled at him and stepped into the nearly closed elevator. It would be another lonely night for him, but he would always be open to Superman. Always.

* * *

**The End**


End file.
